Deadbeat

Though based in Montreal, Deadbeat and his ultra-textured ambient dub soundscapes made their way around the world, finding large audiences in Europe as well as in North America. Deadbeat producer Scott Monteith is a member of the same fertile Montreal scene that includes such luminaries as Akufen (Marc Leclair) and Algorithm (Jeff Milligan). Like his peers, he gained international acclaim in the early 2000s once the French-Canadian city became a hot spot for laptop techno (see the Montreal Smoked Meat compilation), thanks partly to the world-renowned Mutek festival, as well as a wealth of Montreal-based record labels. Monteith debuted as Deadbeat in July 2000 with the Cesium Beam 12" for Hautec Records and has since recorded for such labels as Revolver, Intr_Version, Background, Force Inc, Oral, Scape, Cynosure, and Clitekture. In addition, he has collaborated with Steve Beaupre as Crackhaus and with Robert Henke (Monolake) as Atlantic Wave.

Monteith moved to Montreal in 1995 and quickly became enthralled by the city's underground community of digital musicians and artists, eventually co-founding the multimedia collective Covert Ops. He began recording music as Deadbeat in early 1998 and released his first 12" in 2000. A year later, fellow Montreal producer Mitchell Akiyama released the debut Deadbeat full-length, Primordia (2001), on his Intr_Version label, and another year later, Stefan Betke (Pole) released the follow-up, Wild Life Documentaries (2002), on his Scape label. During the intermittent time, numerous other labels released Monteith's recordings as Deadbeat; most notably, Force Inc showcased the producer's work -- both as Deadbeat and as half of Crackhaus -- on its scene-encapsulating Montreal Smoked Meat (2002) collection.

The Scape label remained his home for the 2004 release Something Borrowed, Something Blue along with 2005's New World Observer, which introduced a more danceable sound. Journeyman's Annual from 2007 continued on this path with dancehall and dubstep figuring into the mix, while his 2008 effort Roots and Wire -- released by the Canadian label Wagon Repair -- was a return to slow dub. A dub techno mix on The Agriculture titled Radio Rothko followed in 2010. By 2011, Scape was no more, but with the label as his inspiration, Monteith formed BLKRTZ and released the Deadbeat album Drawn and Quartered on the imprint that year. The project's eighth official studio effort, simply titled Eight, arrived on BLKRTZ in 2012 with guest appearances from Dandy Jack, Mathew Jonson, and Danuel Tate. ~ Jason Birchmeier